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The full name of the country that we usually call Great Britain is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is situated on the British Isles which lie to the west of the European continent and are separated from the continent by the English Channel, the narrower part of which is called the Strait of Dover. The British Isles are structurally a part of Europe (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. The map of the United Kingdom
The British Isles are washed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea and the North Sea. It greatly influences the climate of the country. It is rather mild with rain falling all the year round and dense fog, especially in big cities where it is mixed with smoke of industrial enterprises.
The United Kingdom consists of four parts: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their total area is 120,000 square miles. The population is about 60 million. More than 80 per cent of the population live in towns and cities. The greatest concentration of the population is in the London area. The capital of the UK and England is London. Over 8 million people live there. The capitals of other countries are Cardiff (Wales), Edinburgh (Scotland), and Belfast (Northern Ireland).
Great Britain is one of the most highly developed countries in the world. The leading branches of industry are coal mining, iron and steel production, electrical engineering, motor vehicles and aircraft, textiles and chemicals and shipbuilding. They play an important role in world trade.
British coal is of the highest quality and is found close to iron fields. Great Britain occupies the third place in the annual production of coal in the world after the USA and Russia.
One of the principal industries of the United Kingdom is shipbuilding. For centuries Britain has been the leading shipbuilder in the world. The most important seaports are: London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff and Southampton.
The industrial centres of Great Britain are Birmingham, Sheffield, Cardiff and Wolverhampton. All these centres are close together. The «second city» of Great Britain is Birmingham. It is called «the city of 1500 trades».
The great disadvantage of Great Britain is that it possesses very few of the raw materials necessary for industry. Most of them must be imported. Britain also has to import a variety of foodstuffs. Great Britain does not produce enough food for its people, much is imported from other countries. The most developed branches of British agriculture are sheep farming and chicken farms. Vegetables are grown in all the countries of the British Isles.
The main agricultural products of Great Britain are wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, white (sugar) beet, milk, beef, mutton and lamb.
Great Britain imported such goods as wheat, furs, iron goods from Russia and exported to Russia textiles, machinery, leather goods, etc.
There is a hundred universities in Great Britain. Besides the famous universities of Oxford and Cambridge there are well-known universities in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol, Belfast.